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5 Reasons Why Floyd Mayweather Is Not T.B.E. (The Best Ever)

Floyd Mayweather likes to assert that he is T.B.E. Now, it’s not exactly rare for a boxer to talk himself up in promoting a fight, but Floyd really seems to believe that he’s the G.O.A.T. Only, he’s not. And this has nothing to do with his being a horrible human being who has an alarming history of domestic violence.

You might be starting to think, “but Floyd Mayweather’s undefeated, and look at that list of opponents!” Yes, Floyd is undefeated and his resume is indeed attractive. Don’t get it twisted, we’re not saying that Floyd’s a bum. He’s probably the best defensive boxer of all-time, but he’s not the greatest fighter who ever lived (probably somewhere in the No. 10-20 range). Want to know why? Of course you do! Here are five reasons:

5. Floyd Mayweather Should Have An L On His Record

To paraphrase Ice Cube in Boyz in the Hood, people either don’t know, don’t show, or don’t care that Jose Luis Castillo beat Floyd Mayweather in their first fight in ’02, despite how the judges scored it. Most ringside observers had it either a draw or a close win for Castillo, who out-landed Floyd, connecting on 203 of his 506 punches to Floyd’s 157 out of 448. With regard to power punches, Castillo connected on 173 of 377 to Floyd’s 66 of 151. Castillo after the fight said, “[i]n my heart, I thought I won. Unfortunately, the judges didn’t agree. Running away, like Mayweather did, is not the way to win a world title.” Pretty Boy Floyd won the rematch handily, demonstrating his elite defense and accurate punching, but that does not erase from memory what should have been a loss in the first fight.

4. Would a G.O.A.T. Resort to a Sucker Punch?

Sure Victor Ortiz had just purposefully headbutted Mayweather and then tried to kiss him, twice. And yes, in boxing you must protect yourself at all times. That is the standard and Floyd therefore acted within the rules, technically. But what would the all-time greats have done in that situation? Muhammad Ali famously punished Ernie Terrell for 15 rounds, taunting him by yelling “what’s my name” rather than knocking him out. And that was just for referring to Ali as “Cassius Clay” rather than referring to Ali by his new moniker, even though most everyone was still referring to him as Cassius Clay. If Ali did that to a guy for calling him by the wrong name, what would he have done to Victor Ortiz?

3. Mayweather’s Resume Is Like Your Favorite Rom-Com

You know how The 40-Year-Old Virgin was amazing for the first hour then lost steam to appeal to the happy-ending loving masses and make money? That’s Mayweather’s career. Great wins over Emanuel Augustus, the aforementioned Castillo, Diego Corrales (against whom Floyd was an underdog), DeMarcus “Chop Chop Corley”, the list goes on.

But those were early. It wasn’t until Floyd transformed into “Money Mayweather” that the public started paying attention. People remember Oscar, Mosley, Canelo, and Pacquiao. However, De La Hoya was well past his prime at 34 years old when they met. Mosley was too at the age of 38. Pacquiao fought Mayweather with a shoulder injury plus the suspicious IV that Money May had administered to him pre-fight. Canelo? He was 23 and not ready for a mega-fight, but took it anyway because he knew he wasn’t getting KO’d. Mayweather cherry-picked his competition later on in his career. That’s not to say that his resume is crap, just that it’s not as good as it looks on paper.

2. We Sure That Floyd Is Clean?

Boxing has been trying to clean up its act with regard to PEDs for some time now (the WBC is actually doing a great job presently). Floyd would argue that he has been trying to keep boxing clean by demanding USADA testing for all of his fights since 2010 (USADA is being used for Mayweather/McGregor). But is USADA trustworthy? It sure doesn’t seem that way if you read this piece from SB Nation from 2015. The column goes into some shadiness that Floyd engaged in just prior to the Pacquiao fight and also included this from Victor Conte, a member of the PED Hall of Fame:

‘The benefits that an athlete retains from using anabolic steroids and certain other PEDs carry over for months,’ Conte continues. ‘Anybody who knows anything about the way these drugs work knows that you don’t perform at your best when you’re actually on the drugs. You get maximum benefit after the use stops. I can’t tell you what Floyd Mayweather is and isn’t doing. What he could be doing is this. The fight is over. First, he uses these drugs for tissue repair. Then he can stay on them until he announces his next fight, at which time he’s the one who decides when the next round of testing starts. And by the time testing starts, the drugs have cleared his system.’

USADA has more loopholes than the U.S. Tax Code. Floyd mandates that every fight he participates in is governed by USADA’s testing rather than the more stringent VADA testing often used in boxing. Why?